Raise a Glass to Historic Preservation with us during Preservation Month!

Historic Preservation is closely linked with energy efficiency. Learn more at the event.

Portland Greendrinks is part of the international Greendrinks network — an informal, volunteer-managed social networking group built around a common interest in the natural environment. It occurs on the second Tuesday of every month, starting at 5:30 pm. The goal of Greendrinks is pretty simple: good times shared among people working in, or interested in, environmental and sustainability issues. Portland Greendrinks is a project of the Maine-based non-profit, The Triceratops Group, founded by Elliott May in January 2010.

Thank you to Ocean Gate Plaza for hosting us! Why hold it at 511 Congress Street?

ONE MAINE SAVINGS BANK, 511 CONGRESS STREET, 1973-1974

More famous in the “other Portland,” Pietro Belluschi (1899-1994) was commissioned to design the Modern building at 511 Congress Street for Maine Savings Bank in 1972, the same year he received the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects, the highest official honor of the American architectural profession.

Born in Italy, Belluschi, trained as an engineer at the University of Rome and attended Cornell University. He then practiced in Portland, Oregon before heading the school of architecture and planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1951-1965.

Mr. Belluschi frequently designed buildings in association with larger firms that would provide backup and technical support, leaving him free to make major design decisions. On One Maine Savings Bank he collaborated with Jung/Brannen Associates of Boston, whom he knew from his time at MIT. The two also collaborated on One Financial Center, an office tower in Boston, completed in the early 1980's.

The key elements of One Maine Savings Bank building are the embracing wings of the low street-side building that form a sunny gathering space, the relationship of the building to the topography of the street with the raised entrance to the building following the natural slope of Congress Street, and the unified dark coppery-brown color of the low mass along the street and the tower behind.